IMac :: Won't Boot Past Apple Screen

Mar 5, 2010

I have one of the old blue PowerMac G3 computers, and I kept getting a kernel panic, so I reset the RAM and now when I start up the computer, it stops at the apple screen without even spinning. I've tried booting it in single user mode, and for some reason it doesn't make a difference what keys I hit while turning on the computer. It still boots to the apple screen.

I have an iBook G4 1.07 GHz 30 gb 256 RAM with Panther. It was working fine until my HD got close to being full. Now I can't get it to boot past the Apple screen. It will either freeze there, or move on to the blue screen and freeze before the progress bar enters. I want to re-install Panther but I can't get any CD to boot during startup by holding "C", including the Panther OS CD, the Hardware Test CD, or the Tech Tool CD. I am able to boot to single user mode, where I type fsck -fy, and I recieve no errors with the hardware. I had this issue beore and my HD had to be replaced by Apple.

I'm trying to repair a Powermac G5 (dual 2.0, the first model I believe, with a new Radeon 9800 graphics card) that won't boot and I'm having some problems that I can't seem to diagnose.

The machine will boot to the openfirmware prompt or target disc mode and will show the 'OS not found' icon if left to boot from the HD (which has been wiped). If I try to boot from either the included restore disc or a retail 10.4 DVD I've tried it will show the boot screen with the Apple logo on it but no spinning status indicator underneath. It just freezes on that screen. Once it showed the status indicator but it just continued to spin for about 30 mins, at which point I gave up. Same issue if I try to boot the hardware test (except it freezes on the hardware test loading icon rather than the Apple icon). The superdrive appears to work as it is accessible in target disc mode.

I've reset the SMU and reset the PRAM via the keyboard shortcut. The one thing that leads me to think it's a firmware fault is that when I run the 'reset-nvram' command it gives an OK, but when I then run 'reset-all' it freezes rather than rebooting. Any ideas anyone?

I recently required a Power Mac G4, and it was working fine, albeit a bit slow but I just assume that was because there's too many files on it, but that's another story. I shut it down before I left work, when I came back in the morning it was just the grey screen with the apple. I reset it, still no response. I reset the PRAM, nothing. I tried to boot in Single user mode, nothing. I tried to boot in verbose mode, nothing. I force ejected the CD and put in an OSX disk one from my laptop, asked it to force read by restarting and pressing "C" and still nothing. I am not sure if a cable inside has been jarred lose.

I have just finished moving my G4 Sawtooth from one house to another. I shut down my machine properly at the one house carefully moved everything over and re-attached the peripherals. Fired up the machine and was greeted promptly with the Apple boot screen and spinning thingy. Then it spun and spun and continued to spin some more. After about 10-15 minutes my desktop backgrounds appeared on the dual monitors, but then sat there like that and no finder ever appeared. After waiting about another 5 minutes, I shut off the machine by holding down the power button. I waited about 10 seconds and powered it on again. Same thing, but this time it just sits at the grey Apple boot screen with the thingy spinning forever. Then I noticed something unusual.

I could hear one, or both of the internal hard drives park the heads and spin down like it was going to sleep. I hadn't noticed that before, but presume it was doing it all along. Meanwhile the computer kept spinning away on the boot screen. I thought, great my drive has crashed and burned. So I removed it and attempted to mount it on my G5 using an external ATA-USB adapter. It mounted without a problem and I was able to see and copy all of the files. So then, I took a spare drive I had with a valid bootable OSX Leopard install and put it into the G4. Fired it up and lo and behold, the same problem. The drive spins up, the machine shows the apple boot screen and keeps spinning the thingy, then after a bit of time the drive parks the head and spins back down. I'm stumped and would like some assistance in resolving this problem. Any suggestions? Oh, and yes, I've tried reseating all cards and memory and disconnected all peripherals.

I am having a major problem with my MacBook Pro and it just wont boot past the apple loading screen at all I have tryed al lot of ways to fix this and it just wont work It does not go into safe mode, it does not boot from cd, the PRAM thing wont work, verbose mode or the comand + s mode wont work I tryed clean install but it wont boot from dvd, also it will not boot in any other way It was working perfectly last night and i just shut it down and it does not work know.

My friend was also trying to install Lion from his account but the .dmg for it did not open so we quit and that night i used it for my essay and finished and then i turned it off and next day in the morning it don't work

This morning, I would turn it on and it'd go to the grey screen with the Apple logo for a few seconds and then go to the icon that is a circle with a line through it. After reading online, I was able to boot it up in Safe Mode. I went to Startup Disk in Preferences. I chose the MAC OS X, xxxx and then clicked the lock to prevent further changes and then clicked restart. Now when I turn on the macbook, it goes to the grey screen with the Apple logo for at least two-three minutes and then just shuts off. Won't boot into Safe Mode now. I already tried the Command-Option-P-R keys trick like five times.

I have a 1.83 Ghz MBP with 512 mb of RAM (lame I know). The other day someone was using my computer to burn a CD on iTunes when all of my programs began failing. On instinct I rebooted my computer to solve the problem. Alas, now I cant boot past the grey apple screen, and the gear is spinning away. Saddest part of the story is that I had time set aside to back up my computer the day after this happened . Anyway what is the best thing to do from here? I haven't made any moves to fix it yet really, so what is the best thing that I can do to try and get my files back?

My imac will not boot past the blue screen. It crashed whilst loading a new application which I downloaded from the mac website, had to force a shutdown as it wasn't responding, and now it will not boot no matter what I try. I have searched for answers on the forums but my mac will not respond to any keyboard commands even with the installation dvd inserted. I don't get the startup chime anymore either.

My iMac won't get past grey screen, I've tried holding down c. I've tried holding cmd+s. I've reset my PRAM etc, I've put back in RAM it came with, and when I turn it on I just get grey screen, apple logo and the spinning thing! Updated it to new snow leopard OSX 10.6.6 and it has a DVD in the drive and I can't even get that out! What can I do?

At work, we have a 17" G5 iMac from back before the iSight was put in. We're an Apple shop, so we have the new iMac actually on the floor for people to try out. The old G5 this thread is addressing is up on a shelf, but we want to turn it on as a display model. We plug a temporary mouse and keyboard into it, but the machine never gets past the white Apple screen with the "I'm thinking" animation. After a minute or two, the fan turns on full blast, but the white screen remains without any signs of moving on. What is our problem?

I've got this little problem with my 2months old iMac i5 since this morning. Yesterday everything was fine, I Watched a movie and updated some software, nothing illigal or damaging. Today I tried to boot my iMac, It showed the apple loading screen, with some kind of loading bar under it. I thought he just had to do that because of the update, so I decided to make breakfast and come back to check on it. When I came back, the bar was gone, but he was still loading! (15 minutes later). So I decided to reboot. still the same problem. I decided to boot from cd to see if this works, to select the startup drive. First I tried to fix the hard drive, but it is unable to fix it. I don't care to format my mac, but would like to know if there are other options to try first.

My mid 2010 iMac i7 will not boot past the apple logo? I'm running 10.7.3. I have tried restoring from TM backup from recovery mode (worked the last time this happened) however upon completion it returns to the recovery screen? I made a disk of Lion when I downloaded the first time (followed same instructions sourced from numerous websites) which does not seem to work when i set to start up from this disk, just gets to the grey screen and flicks between the apple logo, a folder icon with a question mark and the circle with line through? Now I can't eject the disk either, a message appears that system can't eject and to make sure all applications are closed? Not sure how to go about closing these applications without being able to start the system? When I tried booting from the Macintosh HD I got a message that the boot cache partition was faulty? I have ran disk permissions etc all ok.

there back in September when I got my macbook I had the problem where it wouldn't boot past the apple logo screen and it was taken away and the hard drive had to be replaced and now it has happened again! I'm so annoyed as Im getting really close to exams at Uni so need my computer but will it need to have the hard drive replaced again!? As well with it being Lion I dont have a disk with it to try utility disk.

My mother's unibody white MacBook will not get past the grey apple and spinning gear when you first boot up the computer. This was after she opened a link in an email from a friend who had her email compromised. Now I'm getting spam emails with the same link from my mother's hacked email, and her computer won't even get to the login screen. I took it to the genius bar only to be told it was likely HD failure, but the windows partition works without a hitch! What could this be? A trojan? Is there any way to retrieve data (really just pictures) before I attempt to reinstall OS X?

last night i changed the permissions on my macbook to stop my files being shared. now when i log in i cant get past the grey boot up screen. i was told its because of problems created from changing the permissions. i booted up holding shift and nothing happened i booted up in in verbose and it says theres no posix_spawnp("/usr/sbin/mDNSresponder", ...) over and over i booted up with cmd+s and got If you want to make modifications to the files

/sbin/fsck -fy/sbin/mount -uw

If you wish to boot system exit. I dont want what to do here, Im afraid to start messing with it. I really need to get the files in my HD, I'm doing finals right now!!

My mac was shutting down and it took sooo long (blue screen with the spinning loader). I never experienced this, cause normally the dock would vanish and my mac would shut down instantly. But this time it kept showing a blue shutdown screen, so I decided (after about 2 minutes) to hold the power button and force a shutdown. The next time I booted the mac it showed me the gray boot screen, with the spinning wheel and a gray loading bar, which I think is indicating a firmware update or something that has to do with my forced shutdown. But the bar gets to about 1/8 and then vanishes. The spinning wheel stays, but nothing else happens. It just hangs and keeps spinning forever.

I have a fifteen inch 800 MHZ 768 MB ram iMac G4 and for some reason it won't boot up. The apple screen shows up, goes away and then the screen is apple-blue with the cursor you can move around. I left it on overnight and it didn't get past the apple-blue screen. What do I do?

I hardly ever turn off my Macbook unless i need to - I just close it and use it whenever i need to. I let the battery run dry as Apple suggests to do every now and again, and turned it on the next day. It started to boot and took a little longer to get past the grey apple logo and loading circle and then froze on the blue screen. I can control the mouse, but every few seconds it changes to a darker blue, cursor disappears but returns after a second or two. I've tried:

- Booting into safe mode (Same thing happens)- Booting from CD and repairing permissions (Said everything was ok, same thing happens when I booted)- Single user mode (used some commands from an Apple page and restarted)

I can however boot into windows perfectly fine, which leads me to suspect it's a corrupt log in item. I'd like to know for sure it's not a hardware problem so I don't have to take it into an Apple Store.

My wife has a Macbook with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor (Macbook4,1). I am trying to replace the original SATA hard disk (160 GB) with an SSD. I have two SSDs here with me:

1) Intel 320 series, 160 GB

2) Crucial M4, 128 GB

In both cases, after replacing the hard disk with the SSD, I am unable to get the Macbook to get any further than the "Mac sound" and grey screen.

In my first attempt, I cloned the original disk to the SSD on another computer, verified the data got on there OK, and installed the SSD into the Macbook. In subsequent attempts, I just formatted the SSD to see if the Mac would recognize it at all.

When the original hard disk is installed, and my Snow Leopard install DVD is in the DVD drive, during the boot, I can hold down the option key and get a boot choice of booting from the hard disk or the DVD. With either SSD installed, when holding down the option key I get no choices at all, it just sits there (it does access the DVD for a few seconds but then nothing).

I have another 160 GB "regular" hard disk here as well and when I install that I also get the choice to boot from the hard disk or the DVD (although booting from the hard disk does not work since it's a hard disk from a PC).

combination of Macbook and SSD, installing into the hard drive bay? I've seen many posts from people who have had success putting an SSD into their Macbook so I am assuiming it's possible.

I was having trouble submitting an assignment on the American Military University website. After I finally submitted and verified my submission was successful, Finder popped open a window, without being prompted, with a specific part of my "private" folder showing. In the info window it showed that I had read only privleges, but that a user named "wheel" had permissions. Thing is, there is no such user. I am the sole user, and that is not my user name. I panicked, thinking I was being hacked, and moved the entire "private" folder to the trash. It was over 5 gigs. I had to input my admin password after dropping the folder in the trash. Then, my system froze. Now I can't get past the grey boot screen with apple logo and spinning wheel.

I've tried zapping PRAM. I ran disk utility from both the install disk and the startup disk for live verify. NO errors found. Still won't boot. I tried safe mode, and got a status bar below the apple logo but it vanished before filling completely and then the MacBook just continued to hang there spinning the wheel without a status bar. Tried rebooting while holding shift-command-v and got to watch as the computer tried to boot in safe mode, but I got the following messages before the darn thing just began to hang there again:

getaddrlinfo(): node name nor username provided, or not knowngetaddrlinfo(): node name nor username provided, or not knowngetaddrlinfo(): node name nor username provided, or not knowngetaddrlinfo(): node name nor username provided, or not knownlaunch_msg(): Socket is not connectedlaunch_msg(): Socket is not connected

Today I was using my MacBook 2008 aluminum, and I ran out of battery so the system shut down the computer to save the files. I plugged in my computer to start it up but the screen turned grey for a while. I shut down my computer and turned it on and it started up to the grey login screen but it won't let me boot passed it. I have tried to get passed it in safemode but it did not work. I have tried to repair my hard drive and my permissions and reinstall osx lion but it didnt work.

I have a mirror door g4 power pc that had been having some issues with not turning on, and after testing the power supply, it failed miserably. We placed a refurbished power supply in it from a company in New York and the computer was working wonderfully. I went on a cruise last week and went to turn the computer on for the first time in a week and a few days. The CPU turns on, the unit chimes, the fan turns on and the computer starts to boot up, but it won't boot past the gray apple logo screen. Actually, the first few attempts to boot it resulted in a blue screen with gaint apple logo and spinner; it wouldn't advance further. After several restarts and resets, I got it to come up into the normal gray screen. On several attempts it wouldn't boot further than this. On two occasions now though, it has moved past the gray screen to normal operation (it takes about an hour for it to get to that point though) but with some kind of errors. I get the side bar, but the gray panel on to with "file" ect is gone and my HD icon never comes up. The icons on the sidebar do not respond when clicked. The computer will not boot from the OS X disc.

I have Time Capsule and everything is backed up on there. My data is on a separate USB HD + Drobo, but for now I need my iMac to boot but it won't. It won't even get into the Desktop. all the guides online says double click the Install Icon this and that...I would if I can get into the Desktop !

It is just stuck on the Apple Logo screen with the spinny thing, that stops spinning!

So bare with me I want to be thorough so hopefully someone can help me out. My MBP (08) will not boot past the grey screen. The wheel just spins infinitely. I've read about it trying to figure it out.

1) I tried to boot from the install disc, when I do there are weird diagonal lines and the thing is unreadable.2) I hooked it to my Mac Pro in target disc mode. I was able to get some of the information off, but it would eventually freeze up and freeze the finder on the Pro. It wouldn't verify the disc in disc utility. It would freeze if I tried to repair the disc.3) It won't boot in safe mode or single user mode (CMD + S)4) I tried removing the ram and switching it and using only one stick of ram (to make sure it wasn't a ram problem).5) I tried to boot without the battery

Needless to say I am a bit frustrated. My applecare is long gone and there is no apple certified repair place anywhere near here. I've also noticed the thing is very hot. If nothing else I'd like to have an idea of what I should be expecting from the repair place.

I'm trying to resurrect an iBook (translucent white case, 14.1 LCD) that was long neglected, so not sure on its past service history. The following do NOT work: - won't boot up past the gray screen with Apple logo and spinning gear icon (just hangs) - same problem if I try to boot from install DVD ("c" or using "option" then selecting DVD) - same problem with safe boot with "shift" - reset PRAM It will connect via firewire target disk mode to another computer, and I used that to completely wipe the disk and do a clean install of 10.5. When I tried booting into single-user mode (cmd-s), it fills about 2/3 of the screen with normal-looking messages, but then hangs after this (no keyboard response): Got boot device = IOService... [various other stuff] BSD root: disk0s6, major 14, minor 5 I'm out of ideas. Any suggestions? The machine is old enough that it's probably not worth the diagnostic fee of the local Apple shop. Since I can't get it to boot, I can't even run TechTools.

At the tech dept we have this G4 that refuses to boot past the grey screen with the rotating wheel. The logic board has been replaced, we've removed all sticks of RAM save 1x512, we've tried a known working optical drive, replaced ribbon cables (optical cable was frayed on one end) No dice. Option booting works, but once we select the DVD we can't boot from an install PPC CD either, it just gets stuck at the grey screen. We also have a tech HD inside that the computer does not boot from either.